John Wayne Gacy subject of 2 new TV specials tied to 40th anniversary of his arrest

During the chilly nighttime hours on Dec. 22, 1978, police began one of the grisliest excavations in the history of American crime. For weeks to come, Chicago and the nation watched in horror as the crawl space under the home of 36-year-old John Wayne Gacy, a onetime children's clown, was revealed to be a makeshift tomb. The bodies of 29 young men were eventually recovered from the home in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Four others were found in Illinois rivers. The first victim died in 1972, the last in 1978, only 10 days before Gacy's arrest. For decades, authorities could not identify eight of the victims.

John Wayne Gacy is the subject of two new TV specials airing Sunday to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Gacy’s arrest and the end of his Chicago-area killing spree.

The three-part Investigation Discovery series “Deadly Legacy” recalls two of Gacy’s victims, whose remains were identified decades after their death thanks to DNA technology. The first episode, which is scheduled to premiere at 9 p.m. Sunday, focuses on William Bundy. His sister, Laura O’Leary, remembers Bundy’s childhood in Chicago and the search for answers when he went missing in 1976.

“The Curious Case of the Killer Clown,” an hourlong special hosted by CNN’s Jean Casarez, is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday on the HLN network. Casarez interviewed detectives who have worked on the Gacy case.

A suburban contractor who also performed as “Pogo” the clown at parties, Gacy killed at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Police arrested Gacy in December 1978 and began to unearth remains in the crawl space of his home in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill in 1994.

In 2011, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced William Bundy’s remains were confirmed through DNA as part of a renewed effort to put names to eight unidentified victims. Dart is interviewed on the “Deadly Legacy” premiere, as is Cook County Detective Sgt. Jason Moran.

Murder victims Edward Beaudion and James Haakenson are the focus of the other two episodes, which are scheduled to air on subsequent Sundays. Dart announced in 2017 that Haakenson was Gacy victim No. 24. Gacy didn’t kill Beaudion, but his remains were identified in 2014 as part of the Gacy investigation.

“Deadly Legacy” filmed from November 2017 to April 2018. Re-enactments were shot in Toronto. Gacy's house was torn down long ago.